‘Jennifer’s Body’ Sequel Reportedly Reunites Amanda Seyfried and Megan Fox Under Karyn Kusama

Few horror comedies have enjoyed a second life quite like ‘Jennifer’s Body‘. The 2009 film barely made a dent at the box office, yet it has since grown into a cult favorite, and talk of a ‘Jennifer’s Body’ sequel has been bubbling for years.

The original paired writer Diablo Cody, fresh off her ‘Juno’ Oscar, with director Karyn Kusama and a cast led by Megan Fox as Jennifer Check and Amanda Seyfried as her best friend Needy. After an encounter with a rock band leaves Jennifer possessed and hungry for her male classmates, Needy has to decide whether she can stop the escalating body count.

The film was sold as a sexy horror movie for teenage boys, a pitch that fans and critics have since argued did it a disservice. That reappraisal never stopped the demand for more, and now the sequel appears to have found its missing piece.

According to a new report, the follow-up is moving forward at 20th Century Studios with both Fox and Seyfried set to return. Kusama is reportedly back in the director’s chair, working from a screenplay by Cody. There is no release date yet, and nothing has been revealed about how Jennifer and Needy’s story will continue.

The news matters because Seyfried’s involvement had been the open question. Dread Central exclusively reported in July that Fox and Kusama were returning, but at that point Seyfried’s participation was still uncertain.

Seyfried had previously said she wouldn’t make the sequel without Fox, so the reported reunion fits what she has long signaled. It also puts the friendship between Jennifer and Needy, long a highlight of the original, back at the center of the conversation.

Cody has been campaigning for this for a while. She said, “I am not done with Jennifer’s Body,” telling Bloody Disgusting ahead of the release of her ‘Lisa Frankenstein’ in early 2024.

Seyfried then hinted during a Variety interview with co-star Adam Brody that another film was in the works. Kusama later told Deadline that Cody was working on the script, and she said she was very excited to see what came of it. She described the idea as fun and crazy, in the spirit of the first film.

By March, Cody had announced at a Los Angeles panel that she was writing a new screenplay for the sequel. A July listing in Production Weekly then put the film on track to shoot in October in Vancouver, the same region where parts of the original were filmed.

Cody has since said the script is finished and that the sequel is happening imminently. She has said the new film explores why Jennifer is sympathetic, pointing to a loneliness and poignancy in the character that audiences don’t always recognize.

Cody’s recent work has kept her close to this tone. ‘Lisa Frankenstein’, directed by Zelda Williams, is a horror comedy that Cody has half-jokingly said takes place in the same universe as the first film.

That promises a different angle on a character often remembered as a mean girl and a monster. Cody has also said she believes Fox played both sides of Jennifer so well, which suggests the sequel will lean on the actress’s range.

Kusama hasn’t directed a feature in over 7 years and has kept busy in television, including as an executive producer on ‘Yellowjackets’. She reflected on the film’s legacy around its 16th anniversary, when she also discussed the long-mooted sequel. A return to the world she helped define gives the project a creative continuity that few cult sequels manage.

For fans, the reunion of Cody, Kusama, Fox and Seyfried is exactly the lineup they hoped for. The studio has not officially confirmed the details, so the casting remains a report for now. Until 20th Century Studios makes it official, fans will have to wait for a premise and a release date.

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